Electric cars' slow charge in Europe

Europe's appetite for electrically-powered cars surged by 37 per cent in 2014, but still made up just over half a per cent of the Old Continent's new car sales.

The news wasn't all good, though, with lower fuel prices being blamed for a 7.7% drop in electric-car sales in the fourth quarter, leading the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) to call for greater policy incentives.

Pure-electric vehicle sales rose to 38,495 in 2014, from 24,586 cars in 2013, while sales of plug-in hybrids and range-extender electric cars rose to 36,836 from 30,558 in 2013.

The continent's biggest pure-electric vehicle consumer was heavily-subisided Norway, with 18,090 sales, though Norway isn't an EU member state. Norway has regularly seen Tesla and Nissan's Leaf leading its monthly sales figures and sales grew 129 per cent in 2014.

France ranked second, with 10,561 electric registrations, followed by Germany (8,522), the United Kingdom (7416) and The Netherlands (2982).

The United Kingdom saw the biggest increase in new electric vehicle sales in 2014, with its pure-electric sales jumping from 2719 in 2013 to 7416 last year. The Brits also had a booming year for plug-in hybrids and range-extender hybrids, with sales jumping from 1114 in 2013 to 7945 last year.

But the UK wasn't the biggest consumer of plug-ins in Europe last year, with The Netherlands taking 9938 cars, followed by the UK, then Germany (4596), Poland (3887), Sweden (3428) and Austria (2360).

Combined, the pure-electric and plug-in hybrid volumes made the UK the biggest electric market in the EU, though its 15,361 sales were outdone by Norway's 19,767.

The UK volumes for electrically boosted cars are helped by a £5000 bonus plus tax exemptions and exemptions from London's Congestion Charge.

Governments around Europe are following suit, already announcing their latest tricks to swing buyers across to electric cars through financial incentives and support for fast-charging infrastructure.

France is the latest to push higher incentives, with Energy Minister Segolene Royal announcing a bonus of up to €10,000 for anybody who swaps an older diesel-powered car for an electric one.

Starting in April, the scheme is a techie version of Cash for Clunkers and will doubtless benefit the world's largest maker of electric cars, the Renault-Nissan alliance, whose offerings include the Nissan Leaf and the Renault Twizy, Kangoo, Fluence and Zoe. Perhaps not coincidentally, it's also French.

The rebate will bring the cost of the Zoe down from €22,400 in its home market to just €12,400, while the Leaf would drop down from €18,090 to €14,390.

"We have to eliminate old diesel cars that are more than 13 years old and have no filters," Ms Royal said in announcing the scheme. "Measures against these types of polluting cars will make it harder and harder to use them."

Oddly enough, Renault sounded chuffed by the announcement (despite the French car market being more than 60% diesel), with a spokesman suggesting: "It could help convince buyers to try an electric car."

While Renault is the biggest seller of electric cars in Europe, it sold 1,237,606 cars on the continent last year and only 18,000 of them were electric. That figure was dominated by the Zoe, with 11,000 sales making it the most popular electric car in Europe. More than half of Renault's electric sales were in France, which claimed 5970 of them.

As part of the move, France will also push the tax on diesel up by €0.02 a litre to make it on par with petrol and to help fill government coffers, though the government insists that's not the main reason for the alignment. Paris is looking to ban diesels from the centre by 2020 because of particulate pollution.

"Sixty per cent of the French population breathes air that isn't healthy," Royal said, "so air pollution is a major issue."

However, Government policy intervention isn't always a guarantee of success. The Netherlands, which has one of the most generous schemes in place of all the European countries, saw its (admittedly high) electric-vehicle volumes shrink 42.6 per cent in 2014, with its 12,920 sales down from a high of 22,495 in 2013.